SRINAGAR: Former Union minister and Jammu and Kashmir's main Opposition PDP's patriarch Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has expressed solidarity with the crowded corner that is asking for the dead body of Afzal Guru. The ruling National Conference, a coalition government between the NC and the Congress, has already pressed for the return of the mortal remains of Guru, hanged inside Tihar jail on February 9.
In a letter to PM Manmohan Singh, the former CM of J&K said, "I request you to take necessary measures to accommodate the wishes of the people of the state and a majority of them in the country to have Afzal Guru's remains returned to his family for the last rites and try to retrieve whatever little can be of the trust of the people in Kashmir."
Mufti added: "I am writing this letter after an agonising fortnight that, in my opinion, witnessed all the effort at rebuilding a relationship of trust between Kashmir and the rest of the country almost evaporate into thin air. The manner in which Mohammad Afzal Guru was executed in secrecy and very obvious unholy haste is not just another hugely negative reference point in our painful history, but it could have the potential to redefine the very nature of how the people here would view their status within the Union. And I am deeply anxious about its possible fallout on our younger generations who had been struggling to come out of a nightmarish experience of life marked by blood and tragedy."
"Never in a democracy of our size and quality is a convict culled out of a queue from serial number 28 and sent to the gallows. Never is a dying convict denied a last meeting with his family. Never is a condemned man denied what is now established as a last chance to seek judicial intervention after spending 12 years in jail. The people of Kashmir felt he was hanged because the noose fitted only the neck of a man of Afzal's description, and given the sad history of the state's association with the Union, they easily relate themselves with his fate," the letter said.
Agencies, meanwhile, reported that Guru had in a letter to the editor of a local Urdu weekly over four years ago written that there was no need to be ashamed of the December 13 attack on Parliament, but had stopped short of owning any responsibility for it. Guru had addressed Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and said "I request Salahuddin to not call the attack of December 13 as a conspiracy. It pains my heart. The attacks are related to the Kashmir issue. If the attack was a conspiracy, then the whole struggle is a conspiracy. We should not be ashamed of December 13."
Editor Shabnum Qayoom was quoted as saying: "I used to receive his (Guru's) letters and articles, so this was nothing new. The handwriting is the same as the previous letters. I do not care if people believe it to be authentic or not." Asked why he did not publish the letter for four years, he said he did not deem it appropriate. "I believe he was swept by emotions. He was not involved but he thought that as there was no way for escape, why not accept and achieve martyrdom. I did not think it was appropriate to publish the letter at that time as it might have been taken as evidence against him, but now that he is no more, I went ahead with it," he said.
PDP’s Mufti joins chorus of demand for Afzal body
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PDP’s Mufti joins chorus of demand for Afzal body
